消除对妇女歧视委员会听取阿根廷、瑞士、洪都拉斯和亚美尼亚民间社会组织的发言（部分翻译）

日内瓦（2016年10月31日）——消除对妇女歧视委员会今天下午与各非政府组织和一个国家人权机构的代表们举行会议，并讨论了阿根廷、瑞士、洪都拉斯和亚美尼亚的妇女状况，这些国家的报告将在这周审议。

阿根廷国内的主要问题是暴力和歧视行为，每23小时就会有一名妇女被杀害。倒退的公共政策和预算削减影响到了对在获得司法救助方面面临着严重障碍的妇女和基于性别的暴力行为受害者的保护。民间社会组织要求关注以#NiUnaMenos（一个都不能少）为口号的当前大规模示威活动，活动强调妇女的工作、她们遭受的不平等对待以及这一切对歧视和暴力行为的助长。他们表示，过去30年内导致孕产妇死亡的主要原因是缺乏安全合法的流产渠道，并促请实现流产的合法化，同时落实《性教育法》。

发言人表示，瑞士仍未落实《公约》。妇女仍面临着歧视，在决策机构中的代表性不足，并由于陈规定型、暴力行为、不平等酬劳和不公平的税收系统遭受折磨。贫穷不成比例地影响着单身母亲、老年妇女和拥有许多儿童的家庭，因而成为了一个女性问题。社会保障、尤其是养老金，只与有收入的职业相关，这令从事无偿护理工作的人和兼职工作者遭到惩罚。将工作与家庭生活相结合的条件不令人满意，法律中未明文规定带薪育儿假，分居或离婚后的妇女不得不肩负起弥补收入不足的重任。

洪都拉斯的青少年怀孕率在拉丁美洲位列第二，24％的15至19岁女童目前怀孕或已经生产。2009年落实的紧急避孕全面禁令至今仍然有效，即使是对性暴力行为受害者而言，包括药物流产在内的流产行为仍然是有罪的。政府并未解决构成多重形式的暴力侵害妇女行为的父权陈规定型：每16小时就有一名妇女被害，每三小时就会上报一起性暴力案件——受害者大多为14岁以下的女童。

亚美尼亚的性别不平等现象仍然存在，而缺乏解决已经制度化的性别歧视的政治意愿则营造了有罪不罚的氛围以及针对妇女权利的社会冷淡。家庭暴力行为法已经开始起草；但是，这项法律并未犯罪化家庭暴力行为，并未以受害者为中心，也并未涉及婚内强奸行为或提供有效保护和暴力行为预防机制。委员会应促请亚美尼亚创建一项国家性别平等机制，并将议会中的妇女参与配额从20%提升至30%。

以下民间社会组织在讨论中发言：来自阿根廷的拉丁美洲和加勒比保卫妇女权利委员会（CLADEM）、阿根廷OTRANS和变性人、女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和双性人组织以及美洲查科妇女联合基金会；来自瑞士的瑞士北京后非政府组织协调组织、FIZ/PROCORE、瑞典女性的土地组织以及StopIGM.org组织；来自洪都拉斯的妇女生命论坛、妇女权利中心以及妇女研究中心；以及来自亚美尼亚的妇女与大学教育协会、亚美尼亚保健人员专业组织国家联盟、残疾人信息非政府组织（代表11名消除对妇女歧视委员会工作队成员）以及民间社会机构/反歧视中心“纪念”。

瑞士妇女问题联邦委员会也进行了发言。

委员会将于11月1日（周二）上午10点举行下一次公开会议，开始审议阿根廷的第七次定期报告(CEDAW/C/ARG/7)。

Statements by Non-Governmental Organizations

Argentina

Comite de America Latina y el Caraibe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las mujeres (CLADEM), said that key areas of concern in Argentina were violence and discrimination, and that regressive public policies and budget cuts affected the protection of women and the enjoyment of their rights.  Those must be considered in the context of the increasing number of foeticides, and mass demonstrations under the slogan #NiUnaMenos.  On October 19, the first strike of Argentinian women had taken place, which had culminated in massive demonstrations to highlight the work of women, inequalities they suffered and how this contributed to discrimination and violence.  In Argentina in 2016, one woman was murdered every 23 hours, and victims of gender-based violence faced serious obstacles in accessing justice.

OTRANS Argentina and Frente de organizaciones TLGBI Argentina said that the leading cause of maternal mortality in Argentina for the past 30 years was the lack of access to safe and legal abortion.  It was urgent to legalize abortion and ensure the implementation of the Sexual Education Law throughout the country.  Criminal law provided for cases in which abortion was permitted, but stigma surrounding the practice generated additional obstacles, such as the abuse of conscientious objection by health professionals, unnecessary judicial intervention, and others.

Fundación Plurales and Colective de mujeres del Chaco Americano said that the number of women in prisons continued to increase, mostly for crimes related to possession, sale and drug trafficking, and because of the lack of the use of alternative measures to detention.  The situation of peasant and indigenous women was another issue of concern, and in particular access to land, access to water, and the pollution of water resources.

Switzerland

NGO-Coordination post Beijing Switzerland said that the Convention was still not a reality in Switzerland: women continued to suffer discrimination, were under-represented in decision-making bodies, and suffered because of stereotypes, violence, unequal pay, and the unfair tax system.  Poverty was a female issue as it disproportionately affected single mothers, elderly women and families with a large number of children.  Social security, particularly old age pensions, was linked to gainful employment and it punished people doing unpaid care work and part-time workers.

FIZ/PROCORE spoke about human trafficking, sex work, and migrant women and marital violence.  Protection by residence status for victims of human trafficking remained uncertain, the law focused on prosecution, and there were cantonal differences and insufficient funding.  The increased regulation of the sex industry over the last years had resulted in more repression and pressure rather than improved protection, as it had forced sex work underground.  Migrant women suffering marital violence had difficulty in renewing residency permits in case of separation and had an obligation to provide evidence of systematic violence aimed at exercising control.

Terre des Femmes Switzerland highlighted issues affecting asylum seeking and refugee women and girls and said that a key point of concern was the lack of acknowledgement of gender-based persecution for asylum requests.  Despite being acknowledged by law, gender-based persecution as a motive for requesting asylum was inadequately acknowledged in practice, and asylum requests were often treated without an adequate analysis of women’s specific situation.

StopIGM.org said that all forms of intersex genital mutilations were still regularly perpetrated with impunity in public universities and cantonal children’s clinics, and paid for by the Swiss Disability Insurance.  Adequate psychological support was not available, and there was no law to protect intersex children from those practices.  The Government refused to acknowledge that this was an ongoing human rights issue, claiming that it had happened only in the past.

Honduras

Foro de Mujeres por la vida said that the lack of the recognition of the fundamental rights of indigenous and Afro-Honduran women was a major obstacle, while human rights defenders active on indigenous and land issues suffered threats, violence, and death, as was the case of Berta Caceres and Margarita Murillo.  There were two million rural women in Honduras, of which 65 per cent lived in poverty and only four per cent owned land.  There was a regression in the protection of working rights of women, who suffered precarious and unhealthy working conditions.  Many women, including girls of a young age, were employed in agribusinesses that did not recognize them as workers and denied them their rights.

Centro de Derechos de Mujeres said that the law on domestic work was not in place yet and that many domestic workers suffered cruel treatment by their employers.  Honduras had the second highest teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America, with 24 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 being either pregnant or having already given birth.  A total ban on emergency contraceptives had been imposed in 2009 and was still in place, even for victims of sexual violence, while abortion, including therapeutic abortion, remained criminalized.

Centro de Estudios de la Mujer said that one woman was killed every 16 hours in Honduras and that perpetrators of this epidemic of violence suffered impunity.  There were no efforts to address patriarchal stereotypes which perpetuated multiple forms of violence against women – every three hours, a case of sexual violence was reported, the majority against girls under the age of 14.  Systematic violence against women and the impunity that perpetrators enjoyed pushed women to migrate in order to survive; 80 per cent of migrants in the United States fled because of sexual violence.

Armenia

Armenian Association of Women with University Education said that despite some positive steps, the Government and State institutions in Armenia were not gender-sensitive and did not rule out gender inequality.  The absence of a State mechanism on gender equality, despite the existence of the law, was one of the chief reasons for such a situation.  The Committee should urge Armenia to create a national gender equality mechanism, and to increase quotas for women’s participation in Parliament from 20 to 30 per cent.

National Union of Professional Organizations of Health Care Employees of Armenia said that women in Armenia suffered discrimination against women in employment: they made only 64 per cent of a man’s pay, remained in low paid professions, and represented 70 per cent of the unemployed.

Disability Info NGO, said that the lack of political will to address institutionalized sexism created an atmosphere of impunity and societal indifference towards women’s rights in Armenia.  The drafting of the law on domestic violence had started, but the concern was that it did not criminalize domestic violence, was not victim-centred, did not provide for efficient protection and violence prevention mechanisms, did not address marital rape, and that it granted custody of children to fathers despite a history of abuse.  Women with disabilities were stigmatised and marginalized, and remained invisible in public policies, programmes and national action plans.  Early marriage continued to be practiced, particularly among ethnic minorities such as Yazidis.

Civil Society Institute NGO/Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” said that Armenia had accepted many refugees from Syria and Iraq, but those not of Armenian or Yazidi origin had not been welcomed, while female Muslim refugees and refugees from Africa were denied asylum.  The list of prohibited professions for women included more than 400 jobs, and this was a distinctive problem of post-Soviet countries.

Questions by Committee Members

An Expert asked for additional information concerning the situation of Yazidi girls in Armenia, and strategies to address the transmission of sexual diseases to women by their migrating husbands.

On Switzerland, Experts asked about access to general services and legal remedies for victims of human trafficking, and whether foreign women who were victims of human trafficking could apply for residence permits even if they refused to cooperate with the prosecution process.  How were intersex babies treated by the medical staff and what was the role of the parents? 

What were key obstacles to the operation of the judiciary in Honduras in protecting the rights of women?

Experts asked about gender parity in the Supreme Court and other judicial institutions in Argentina, and how the questions concerning the reconciliation between a woman’s work and family could be worded.

What was the level of awareness about the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Argentinaand in Switzerland?

Responses by Non-governmental Organizations

Representatives of organizations took the floor to respond to questions posed by the Committee on Argentina and said that the Committee could ask the delegation how it dealt with gender-based violence issues.  Only one of the five Supreme Court judges was a woman, and there were no quotas or other legislative measures aimed at the increasing participation of women.

Victims of human trafficking in Switzerland could be protected in some cantons and some centres; if they refused to bring complaints they could stay in shelters for a short time, and if they decided to file a complaint, they could apply for short-term stay permits only, which did not provide a sufficient incentive for cooperation with the prosecution.  An intersex child was still regarded as being disordered and parents were under pressure to undertake cosmetic surgery, with doctors saying that the child would otherwise suffer psychologically.  Parents were pressured to agree to the surgery which violated the rights of the child.

Key factors which hampered access to justice for women in Honduras included poverty; lack of access to judicial organs in rural areas, where 60 per cent of the population lived; lack of training about women’s rights; gender stereotypes; and lack of a gender-based approach in investigations.  This led to a lack of trust in law and order institutions.  The fact that women were not allowed to serve as judges for example illustrated the level of discrimination that women suffered.

In Armenia, the problem of the transmission of HIV to women by their migrant husbands, mainly working in Russia, was an issue of serious concern.  It was estimated that 75 per cent of the registered HIV cases was among women who were infected though heterosexual contact with their migrant husbands.  Stigma against HIV positive women was still very high, which must be urgently addressed, together with the access of women to health care and increasing the negotiating power of women in their intimate relations with their husbands.

Dialogue with National Human Rights Institution

Swiss Federal Commission for Women’s Issues drew the attention of the Committee to the political participation of women, and in particular the media presence of female candidates priori to elections, which was an important factor for electoral success.  A recent study had shown that the media practically no longer used gender stereotypes for the presentation of candidates, while female candidates were still clearly underrepresented both in print and electronic media across all linguistic regions.  The conditions for combining work and family life in Switzerland were unsatisfactory, with paid parental leave not yet regulated in law.  Switzerland was below European average in terms of the number of women in management positions, and therefore gender quotas must be included in the forthcoming modernisation of company laws.    Switzerland must take legal measures to eliminate discrimination against part-time employees – principally women – in invalidity insurance.  Parliament had failed to set a minimum level of child maintenance in the new provisions, and it had not tackled the issue of income deficit following separation or divorce.  It was usually the mother who bore the entire deficit following separation or divorce and she was the one who had to ask for social assistance if there was not enough income for two households.

Committee Experts inquired about factors that impeded Switzerland in making  progress in addressing family issues, including those related to income deficit following separation and divorce.

Responding, representatives said that one reason for which family matters did not advance was that the federal structure was being used as an excuse to pass on the responsibility to cantons.  However, there were clear suggestions on how to solve the income-deficit issues on a federal level.  There was also the matter of mind sets, Switzerland had just elected a Parliament which showed very little gender sensitivity; all matters pertaining to family life were seen as a private issue, and there was adversity of having the State impede on family life.

There were no representatives of national human rights institutions from Argentina, Honduras or Armenia present in the room.
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